From 1 October 2026, right to work checks stop being something that only happens when you are hired as an employee. If you work through your own limited company, take contracts as a sole trader, or pick up work through an app, the client or platform engaging you will now be required to check that you can legally work in the UK. Expect to be asked for proof at the point you are engaged, not weeks later.
This is a change to who gets checked, not a change to who is allowed to work. Your immigration status is exactly what it was last month. What changes is the number of organisations with a legal reason to ask you to prove it, and the speed at which they will want an answer.
What Is Actually Changing
Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 comes into force on 1 October 2026. Until now, the legal prohibition on employing someone without the right to work attached to contracts of employment. A company engaging a freelancer under a contract for services sat outside that scheme, so many clients never asked.
The new provisions extend the scheme to people working under a worker's contract, to individual sub-contractors, and to online platforms that match people to work. Liability can also travel up a contractual chain, which means a company two steps removed from you may still want evidence that a check was done properly.
Penalty levels for the engaging business have not changed. What has changed is how many businesses are now exposed to them, and that is why the requests will arrive.
Who This Affects in Everyday Terms
- Contractors working through a personal service company on client site
- Sole traders invoicing a business directly for services
- Agency workers supplied to an end client
- Delivery, courier, care and trades work sourced through an app
- Anyone sub-contracting to a larger contractor on a project
Why Clients Will Suddenly Behave Differently
A client who has engaged you happily for three years without ever mentioning immigration status may now send a compliance form before your next purchase order. This is not suspicion directed at you. It is a business protecting a statutory excuse, which is the defence that a properly conducted check provides if the authorities later find a problem.
The practical consequence is timing. A check that has to be completed before work begins becomes a gate on your start date. Contractors who can evidence status in an hour will start on Monday. Contractors who need a fortnight to find documents will watch the engagement go elsewhere.
What to Have Ready Before You Are Asked
British and Irish citizens can prove status with a passport, including one that has expired, or with a birth certificate alongside official evidence of a National Insurance number. Many clients now prefer to use a certified identity service provider instead, which verifies a valid passport digitally.
Everyone whose right to work depends on immigration permission will use an online check. You generate a share code, give it to the engaging organisation along with your date of birth, and they view your status directly. A share code issued for right to work purposes is valid for 90 days, so generate one when you need it rather than keeping an old code on file.
Assemble a Small Pack Now
- Locate your passport or immigration documents and check the expiry date
- Confirm you can log into your UKVI account and produce a share code
- Note your National Insurance number somewhere you can find it quickly
- Keep a dated record of every check a client completes, including who did it
The Question Clients Get Wrong
Some engagers will ask for documents they are not entitled to keep, or will ask a British citizen for a share code. Share codes exist for people whose status sits in the immigration system. A British citizen cannot generate one, and being asked for one usually means whoever built the form did not understand the rules.
Equally, a client cannot lawfully decide to check only the people whose names or accents suggest they might be foreign. Checking selectively is discriminatory. If you are the only person on a team being asked, that is worth raising, politely and in writing.
What This Means for Your Rates and Contracts
Compliance adds friction, and friction has a cost. Contracts are already being rewritten to include right to work warranties, indemnities and audit clauses. Read new clauses before signing rather than after. A clause requiring you to indemnify a client for immigration penalties is different in kind from a clause requiring you to cooperate with checks.
Some engagers will respond to the change by pushing work towards umbrella companies or agencies, so the check sits with an intermediary. That may shift how you are paid as well as who checks you, which is worth understanding before you accept.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does This Change My Right to Work?
No. Your status is unchanged. Only the set of organisations legally required to verify it has widened.
Can a Client Insist on Checking Me Again for Every Contract?
Yes, and many will. Each engaging organisation needs its own evidence, dated before work starts. A check done by a previous client does not help a new one.
What If I Refuse to Provide Proof?
The engager will almost certainly decline the work. From October the check is a legal requirement for engagements in scope, not a preference they can waive for a trusted contractor.
Is a Share Code Reusable?
A right to work share code is valid for 90 days from issue. Generate a fresh one for each engagement rather than reusing an old code, which may have expired.
Who Carries the Penalty If a Check Goes Wrong?
The engaging organisation, and potentially others up the contractual chain. The point of the check is to establish their statutory excuse. That is why they are asking, and why they will not proceed without it.
The Practical Takeaway
Treat proof of status as part of your standard onboarding pack, alongside insurance certificates and bank details. Contractors who already keep that pack current will find October a minor administrative change. Those who treat each request as a fresh scramble will lose engagements to people who answer faster.
This article is general information about a change in the law and not legal advice. If your own contracting structure is complicated, take specialist immigration advice before 1 October 2026.
Sources
UK Government (Home Office). Extension of prohibition on employment to other working arrangements: impact assessment.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill-2025-impact-assessment/extension-of-prohibition-on-employment-to-other-working-arrangements-impact-assessment-accessible
UK Government. Extending the Right to Work Scheme.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/extending-the-right-to-work-scheme
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